IOR/R/15/1/127 ff 6-15

Covering letter with a number of enclosures:

• An extract of paragraph 2 from a despatch (f 7) from the Honourable Committee, dated 28 November 1850, which makes reference to a letter from Lord Palmerston of 27 November 1850 (f 8), relating to a conference held with the Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires, on the suppression of the slave trade in the Portuguese dominions on the coast of East Africa;
• An extract of a letter (f 8) from Lord Palmerston, Foreign Office, London, to Sir John Hobhouse, dated 27 November 1850, relating to the extension of an agreement made in 1847 between British and Portuguese government ministers, for British cruisers to patrol the coastal waters of the Portuguese dominions in East Africa where no Portuguese authorities are yet established, for slave trading activity;
• A protocol of a conference relating to the slave trade on the east coast of Africa (ff 9-10), held at the Foreign Office on the 19 November 1850. The protocol outlines an agreement between British and Portuguese government ministers, for British cruisers to patrol the coastal waters of the Portuguese dominions in East Africa where no Portuguese authorities are yet established, for slave trading activity;
• A letter (ff 11-12) from Edward Stanley of Alderley, to John Parker, First Secretary to the Admiralty, dated 23 November 1850. The letter encloses a copy of the Protocol of Conference (ff 13-15) held between His Lordship Viscount Palmerston and the Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires, recording the renewal of the protocol for a further three years;
• Copy of the Protocol of Conference, held at the Foreign Office on the 12 August 1847. The original wording of the protocol states that Britain felt that 'great facilities' for slave trading existed along unpoliced stretches of the Portuguese East African coast, and an agreement made between the two countries permitted British naval vessels to 'pursue and capture' those vessels suspected of trading in slaves. The original agreement was made for a period of three years (1847-50).